P-Chests - PLEASE READ

Post by **BrunoKnotslinger** » Fri Feb 02, 2007 2:19 am

The workaround for the "issues" that have plagued true persistant p-chests since their inception has been in place on the East public chest in the Town Hall for several days now. I have been working on some improvements to make it more comfortable for players.

In case you don't know what I'm talking about, go visit Town Hall and open the East chest. You'll see little gem pouches with names of stackable items on them. One example would be "Healer's Kit +9 (10)". That means that the pouch contains a stack of 10 +9 healing kits. When you place a stackable into the chest, it automagically gets placed into the pouch and the pouch is named appropriately. When you take a pouch out, the item inside is automagically placed into your inventory and the pouch is destroyed.

So, on to the questions:

What do you think of this system? Do you feel the tradeoff between more storage (the pouches take up only 1 square, regardless of the size of the stackable) versus the annoyance of having to mouse over the pouches searching for the item you want is worth it?

Would your answer change if, instead of the pouches, there were 11 generic icons representing the 11 main types of stackables (Arrows, Bolts, Bullets, Darts, Healing Kits, Potions, Thieves Tools, Scrolls, Throwing Axes, Shurikens, and Gems) to make it easier to find the items you're looking for? For example, here it is in practice:

Remember, before you answer, that this workaround means the end of the annoying "Your item disappears in a cloud of illogical nonsense. So sorry, but you got screwed." messages.

Next question: This would mean the addition of another (very small right now) HAK, marking the beginning of Arkaz custom content. Would that bother you in any way?

All of this hinges on the system holding up under stress, which leads to my next question.

If you have used the East chest to place/remove stackables into/from the chest, have you had any problems? (Item disappearing, the OOC gem pouch appearing into your inventory without it properly dumping the item, etc.) If you have, what were they, and can you repeat it? (Please PM me privately if so.)

I would also appreciate any other thoughts you have on this. It's not a perfect solution, but I think it's a reasonable one. (And by "I think", I really mean, "I hope". Compared to the "cloud of illogical nonexistance" workaround, the code for it is very compact.)

Post by **fleuretty** » Fri Feb 02, 2007 4:58 pm

Providing it's workable, I like the suggestion of the 11 generic icons as per the screenie. Cuts down on the amount of time you'd spend searching, especially if you have to go through 25 screens twice. A nice idea I think anyway. And a small HAK wouldn't bother me, not like asking people to download a huge HAK on a regular basis as (possibly) more custom Arkaz content comes into being.

Drysh · Post by **Drysh** » Fri Feb 02, 2007 11:58 pm

Great idea... Just a question: Isn't it possible to make the script ignore stackable items??? If you want, I could take a look at it to try to find a fix (send me the erf).

Post by **BrunoKnotslinger** » Sat Feb 03, 2007 6:31 am

Drysh wrote:Great idea... Just a question: Isn't it possible to make the script ignore stackable items??? If you want, I could take a look at it to try to find a fix (send me the erf).

Yes. But then you have a p-chest that won't store stackable items.

Drysh · Post by **Drysh** » Sat Feb 03, 2007 2:33 pm

I meant the script the destroys items, not the one that stores them. A check: if the item is stackable, then don't check if it's dupped or not.

Post by **Alphonse** » Sat Feb 03, 2007 2:57 pm

Drysh wrote:I meant the script the destroys items, not the one that stores them. A check: if the item is stackable, then don't check if it's dupped or not.

Its only the stacks that dupe unfortunately

Post by **BrunoKnotslinger** » Mon Feb 05, 2007 5:49 pm

So without any other responses, I'm going to assume that the other 218 registered users have read this, see no problems with it, and feel giddy with excitement about it going fully live.

Let me re-emphasize: This would mean a change in the annoyance level for using p-chests. Before we go implementing this on every p-chest, I really am interested in hearing comments, criticisms, bugs you've encountered, and the like. Really I am. Really really. Seriously.

Post by **terryrayc** » Mon Feb 05, 2007 8:32 pm

I'm fine with it...then again it makes life easier for me anyway!!

Post by **medea** » Mon Feb 05, 2007 8:32 pm

I like it. I want the generic icons because I don't like trying to figure out what the little bags are supposed to be. For example, what is a little gem bag called "vampire" supposed to be? Is it a scroll? Is it an arrow? Do we have a vampire stuffed in a bag?

Also, if there is going to require a hak, please give us plenty of warning and time to get that hak installed. I hate trying to log into a game and being told I have to find some hak first!

There's my two cents...

Post by **BrunoKnotslinger** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 3:48 am

NOTE:

THIS IS NOW LIVE!

All pchests now use this system.

When you place a stackable into a chest, you'll notice that it appears "greyed out". This is normal and is simply an "after image" of the item after it gets deleted.

When you remove one of the new "icons" from the chest, you'll notice that the item is restored to your inventory. If, for whatever reason, you end up with one of the special containers, dispose of it as the description indicates.

Here's what you can do to convert the entire contents of your chest to this new "system" and to detect what items you have that are duping.

One at a time, take stackables out of the chest then place them back in the chest to convert them to the new 1-square icons.

After the next reboot, whatever stackables load in your chest (the actual stackable item, not the new icons) are dupes. Make a note of all that's duping.

Please notify me of any problems you encounter.

~ B